The Adequate Blog

Wow - the AdequateBlog topped over one thousand unique hits in January, which is kind of an ego-fulfulling moment for me, I can tell ya. Thanks to everyone who stopped in from wherever you came from, and thanks to the folks who are willing to stick around and see what I’m going to babble about next.

Today.com is going to be changing a few things in the coming months, one of which being that they’re going to push their hosted blogs to a uniform blog template. So… the furniture may change a bit but the content will continue to remain, uh, Adequate.

January is “build the calendar” month around here at Casa Del Adequacy - I send out a lot of emails and promo packets and start sorting out where I’m going to be performing and when. At least that’s the usual plan. With new costumery on the horizon, my RenFaire pictures are a bit out of date and I haven’t been sending out quite as many - these days I rely more on the Ren Register  website as it covers a number of west coast events.  However, getting stuff out for county fairs and local festivals continues apace.

Some thoughts on that:

• Put together a “Promotional Package” if you’re an act. Seriously. Even if it’s just aq few bits of paper and a DIY DVD. You give a much more professional impression.
• The packet should contain: A promotional photo with your name on the front, a “one-sheet” describing your act and why you’re going to be a good pick to perform, contact information, a demo reel DVD if you have one, and anything else you might use to sway the promoter.
• Get yourself some folders from the office supply store and fancy them up a bit. Print your logo on some sticker sheets and put that on the front, get the appropriate big padded envelopes, and ship ‘em off.
• If you don’t hear from the promoter in about a week, email or call the promoter to make sure they got the packet. Don’t expect them to have made a decision - you just want to be on their radar.

See? A little value in with the self-indulgent “Ain’t I Great?” web ramble.  Wotta value!

In an earlier post I talked about my “Magic Survival Kit” when I’m at Faire, but I haven’t babbled much about the non-magic stuff I tote around with my when I’m not at “base camp” - my stage, backstage or “Someone kind is letting me dump all this stuff behind their booth or encampment so I have a backstage” area.

Some of this is may bear explanation:

• Wallet, ID, Keys - The Book Carter Beats The Devil gave me a show biz maxim which I will adhere to my entire life: Never go on stage without your wallet.  While this was thought up during the Vaudeville days when a common backstage area and a not-always-trustworthy peerage made it an imperative to keep an eye on your goodies, it’s just a good idea to have these things with you no matter what.  You never know when you’re going to want to buy something, prove you are who you say you are (new security guy? Have to suddenly run off-site to get something?).
• Cell Phone - Yes.  I have one. This thing is my “office” for the magician thing and contains, among other things, a running tally of my “hats” per show, my schedule, and of course a handy way to get in touch with people if necessary. Yes, I keep it on silent or vibrate mode.
  Note: having your phone on vibrate mode while carrying it in the codpiece of your costume trousers… may lead to hilarity. Or talking like Jerry Lewis. Sometimes in the most inappropriate times, like when you’re in front of the Queen.
• Chapstick - Me. Shouting. Dusty dry location. Sun. Nuff said.
• Small packet of wetwipes - FAIRE.  Nuff said.
• Beverage Container - This one’s a point of irritation for me. Mostly because in order for the container to hold enough to make drinking from it meaningful, it has to be big enough that carrying it around has to be done on your belt when empty, hand when full, or you get to play ‘Sloshy McSloshington’ with your Tankard On A Rope trick.  Size, weight, and the fact that it’s gonna contain a liquid at some time all make this an obnoxious thing to deal with even if you never accidentally sit on it. I’m still sorting out a better answer for this one. More as it develops.
• Small Tube of Sunscreen - FAIRE. SUN HOT. Etc.

Phew. That’s quite an assortment of goodies. Most of this has been carried about in the ubiquitous pouch on the belt strategy for the past few years - I don’t seem to do well with shoulder bags. As we work on the new costumery, I suspect we’ll find clever places to store a lot of this gear.

… I’ve been doing this show now for going on eight years, and in a quiet moment I started to think over how the act itself has changed. Part of this was brought on by my re-viewing the Last Day of my First Year video on Yahoo! Video (caution: long).

For one thing, the actual materials I use have changed.

When I started out, the majority of what I did involved rope. Now, rope is inexpensive, packs relatively small, and can take up an awful lot of space… so I had

• A color changing rope
• The Professor’s Nightmare
• The linking ropes
• The Coat of Loki
• Professor Fun’s Rope Trick (or what I call 24 feet of rope and some underpants)
• and for a little while, Tenkai’s Decapitation performed with rope

As my show progressed, I started using some other props

• An appearing pole
• The Disarmed box trick
• The linking rings (a gag which supplanted the linking ropes entirely)

… all of which was in a big, solidly built and heavy wooden box. So things were getting heavier.

Later on, I acquired

• Total Recoil (or how to put that pole away back in the box)
• The Crystals…OF MYSTERY! (ooo!)
• A smaller wooden box
• Several tables (”Look! I have furniture!”)
• A Lota Bowl
• Steel Animal Traps
• Peter Loughrain’s Iron Garotte as my finale

… and things got even heavier.

In 2005 I acquired the unfolding table of wonder which I still use… so now I had that plus… all the other stuff above. The next year I worked the Caliveras Celtic Faire, and it snowed. A lot. So I was hauling the table, and the box, full of heavy stuff, up the hills, in the snow.

… so I started working toward a lighter set. One that would pack down and travel easily.

• The pole went away
• So did the Lota bowl
• The box got smaller (a wooden toolbox, in fact) and acquired an aluminum base
• I started doing things with paper napkins

but… that wasn’t quite working for me. So right now I have …

• A leather “gladstone” bag for all the stuff
• A table and aluminum base which goes in the bag
• The Crystals… OF MYSTERY
• Rope
• Scissors
• Eight feet of Chain
• … and assorted infrastructure.

… however, the amount of stuff I have geared toward improving my environment is beginning to outweigh the amount of stuff I have to actually do the magic tricks.

… weird.

No one creates an act in a vacuum - what I do on stage is influenced by the acts of those who came before me, those I’ve seen live, those I’ve read, or read about.

Here’s some of those influences:

• MooNiE The Magnificent - The best acts at Faire don’t so much ‘play on stage’ as ‘play with the audience’, and MooNiE - Philip Earl - is one of the best.  People come back to his show again and again because while the structure of the show remains the same, each show is unique in that the audience is made part of the act.   MooNiE does it all, or at least most of it, silently, with only a few whistles and vocal sound effects to direct volunteers.  I have never, ever heard anyone else be so eloquent with whistling and body language - including where he exhorts someone to either turn around and watch his show or get the expletive out. Yes, in whistles.
  Phil is also a very, very nice guy.  Heck, he talks to me and I’m an obnoxious, loud cuss.
• The Swordsmen - Two men, two swords, far too much schtick. From them I learned the value of getting the audience to sound off early and often.  Also the value of coming right out and declaring that you are about to do something life-risking and foolhardy.  These two Bold and Stupid Men inspired me to become Dangerous and More Than a Little Stupid.
• Richard Osterlind - professional magician and mentalist - his eBook Making Magic Real helped to lay the groundwork for my Philosophy of Character, albeit a significantly less facile and sophisticated character.
• Mac King - Penn Gillette said it best: Mac King is a God.  He is one of the funniest, most consistent, and darn nicest pro magicians I’ve had the pleasure to meet.  If you’re ever in Las Vegas, go see his show. It’s more than worth it. He’s also the author of Tricks With Your Head, which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to cause milk to come out of a friend’s nose at an inopportune moment.

That’s some of my influences. There are more, and they’ll come out as I do more of this blog thing.

Let’s face it, when you have a magic show and it’s on a stage, you really want to have a lot of people cheering, laughing, and giving you money at the end of the day. It’s just a thing that you do - otherwise you’d be practicing at home by yourself, right?

Last year I was performing at the Golden Gate Renaissance Faire and afterward, we took the week that followed and spent some time in San Francisco - just touristy things. Of course, since I’m a magician I took a little something to fidget with because that’s what we do.

So I’m standing outside at the Cannery (one of the many mini shopping centers off Fisherman’s Wharf) waiting for my best beloved to come out of the restaurant where we  ate. Like many of these places, there’s a little stage area where, in better weather and economic times, performers do their thing.  I’m standing there in my Tobias the Adequate jacket, just waiting…

There’s a family nearby - two young girls and their mother, apparently waiting for someone in the same manner I’m waiting for someone.

I absently reach into the air, pluck at something, and carefully convey it to my left hand.

I look into my hand, thoughtful, and tease out the corner of something… a little more tugging, and a long streamer of many colors emerges, the loose end held aloft by the constant breeze pushing through the courtyard. I look at it, then carefully tuck it, bit by bit, back into my hand, finally giving a little squeeze… and open my hand. Empty.

Out of the corner of my eye I see those two little girls watching me. I don’t say a darn thing. I just glance over at them and smile at them, the look of suprise and wonder on their faces.

Sometimes the best audiences are the ones we don’t plan for.

Max Malini (born Max Katz Breit 1873 - October 3, 1942) was a magician who at his peak performed for several U.S. Presidents, had command performances at Buckingham Palace, and received gifts from monarchs across Europe and Asia. Magicians are said to revere him for his skill and bold accomplishments.Malini’s performance style was marked by great audacity. For instance, he would often walk up to people of great celebrity and unannounced simply bite a button from their cuffs and magically restore it. He would also borrow a gentleman’s hat for a coin effect, where he would cover the coin and attempt to make it flip over. This he would fail to do, but would finish by lifting the hat to reveal a block of ice under the hat, barely large enough to fit^[1].

Malini was born in the small town of Ostrov on the borders of Poland and Austria. At a young age, he emigrated to America with his family, settling in New York City. He studied juggling at age twelve, but under the tutelage of Professor Seiden he began his studies of magic (illusion) when he was fifteen. As he grew older, he began performing in bars. As his reputation grew, he would sell tickets to see a private show in his hotel room. He specialized in close-up magic, performing with coins and card magic.

- From Wikipedia 

Max Malini was known for his skill, his timing, and for the seemingly impossible way he could make magic happen at any time, in any place, for any reason.  A recurring theme in conversations about and with him is that he’d “load”, or hold ready, some object (an egg, a block of ice, a brick, at least once a whole roast chicken) to produce at the opportune moment.

His advice, when asked “how long should you hold it” was reported to be “at least a month”.  I’m guessing this was an exaggeration by him (especially for the block of ice), but it does pose an interesting concern:

When you’re performing in an “environmental” situation such as a Renaissance Faire, how much should you have “handy” to do at any time and how long should you tote things around?

To wit: Suppose you have (without giving anything away here) a method for producing a full goblet from behind a handkerchief. When do you “load” this goblet? At the beginning of the day? Before your show?

Now for more questions: how many goblets do you “load”? Do you want to be able to do this more than once before you have to duck backstage to reset?  And who do you do it  for? Is this a special presentation for the King / Queen  / Monarch / Special Guest, or do you want it to be a little bit of street theatre: I’m thirsty. Hm.. *produce*  *drink* Much better.

… personally I’m leaning toward the second.  So now I have to sort out what kind of beverage container, how do I keep it from spilling, where do I “load” it, when do I produce it, etc etc etc.

I’m not planning on doing anything with blocks of ice or bricks - yet - but it’s giving me a greater appreciation of what Malini did as a matter of course.

There’s only one full weekend Renaissance Faire in Oregon, so I wind up travelling a lot during “Season” to faires out of state. Since I’m a Part-Time Pro, and have to get back to my Day Job by Monday morning, this means flying.

Flying as a working magician is… interesting.  Flying as a working magician who works Renaissance Faires… that’s an adventure.

First, of course, there’s all the magic stuff. Since I work with chain and rope and swords and the like… this means I have to check that stuff through.

True Story: The one time I tried to carry-on my act, the 8 feet of chain I use for the Big Stupid Finale got confiscated in Sacramento.  Just the chain. Amazing.

Since I have three or four shows a day, everything that gets “consumed” during the act has to be packed in multiples: that’s 4 hanks of rope, plus any paper goods I might be using. Rope is light, but it takes up space.

The metal bits (sword, scissors, chain, steel animal traps, etc) may be compact, but they add weight. Sometimes a lot more weight than you might think.

Now pack your RenFaire costume, boots, accoutrements, civilian clothes, toiletries, something to read on the plane…  and this adds up.

I’m in a constant competition with the laws of physics to pack everything into one bag which is easy to move and weighs less than 50 lbs - that’s the “oversized luggage” limit for Southwest, my favoritest airline in the whole wide world. Sometimes I do well, but sometimes it just can’t be done, so I wind up with two bags. This can be really entertaining when I’m juggling two rolling bags while attempting to get from the airport to the rental car place, but it means I can tote twice as much… which, considering all the infrastructure we’ve been putting together, is a good thing.

Lately I’ve gotten smart enough to listen to my own advice and pack lots of little bags into the big bags to keep bits organized. This is really a good idea on Sunday when I’m usually wrapping up my last show and proceeding with all due haste back to the car, changing hastily and hauling to the airport so as not to miss my return flight.

… of course, it’s never as tidily packed on the way home as it was on the way out.

Since I have the aforementioned Day Job, I wind out flying out after the work day is done - usually around 9pm or so to allow for travelling to the airport during rush hour. This is exciting no matter which way you travel - driving is, well, driving, and taking the train means juggling one or more bags on the train for a couple hours, then taking the bags to the airport to check in.

Coming back, I have a little more leeway on when I fly home - for the past two years I’ve booked the latest possible flight home to allow for time to drive back to the airport. I’ve been experimenting lately with an earlier flight - a little more impetus to Get Out after my last show, but I get to return to an airport that is not darn near abandoned.

… and getting to bed at a sane time so I can get some sleep before Monday is nice too.

… here’s something I’ve been pondering for a while.

Magic is, in and of itself, an inherently theatrical form - it requires a performer and an observer. And the two share a common reality, at least for a moment. That reality requires rules and guidelines.

Most of the time, the unspoken rules of reality are what get broken when the magician performs - things vanish, appear, change form, float, are destroyed and recreated, and so on.

In the “real world”, this would be really scary stuff to see happen! Well, ok, flying would be utterly cool, but everything else would cause most “normal” people to flip out and / or alert the authorities.

… now, one of the common “food for thought” questions that floats around in the Magic community is,

If you could do real magic, what the heck are you doing performing on a stage? Why aren’t you using your amazing powers for (good / evil / personal benefit, etc)?

… I have some answers to propose:

I - I’m Not That Good 

Not every person who has special powers can leap tall buildings in a single bound. Some of us can only heat up a cup of tea or maybe fall more lightly than they would normally. Some of us can predict the next commercial to come on the TV. Not brilliant stuff in the mundane world, but on stage we can create a set of circumstances which might make this ability look much more interesting than it would otherwise.

II - Everything Has a Price

Reality doesn’t like being messed with, and charges a steep fee. As energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but only converted from one fom to another, anything “magical” that one does has to be paid for somehow - energy, time, something.  It costs less to fly in a theater than it does to fly from Chicago to Los Angeles without an airplane.  It costs less to turn a single dollar bill into a $100 bill than a dozen, plus if you turn it back into a $1 bill you get some of that expenditure back.

III - I Got Tired Of Being Shrieked At

• Making a ball float on stage: entertainment.
• Making a ball float in the playground: cause for screaming and possibly being beaten with sticks.

IV - I Can Get Paid For Doing It On Stage

Pretty self-explanitory, yes?

Anyway, those are part of the “subtext” of what I do on stage in my act. I’m going to be playing around with these a bit more in the coming months…

Every show seems to have pet names for the folks who come back to see them again and again. For me, it’s “repeat offenders”. I’m not entirely certain why, but this phrase leapt out of my face somewhere around 2002 when I first noticed people who had come to see my show in 2001 … had come back. And were coming back again and again!

“WHY? It’s the same show!”

… well, they kept coming back, so I deemed them “Repeat Offenders”. They seemed to like that, which goes to show you the kind of crowds I get at my shows.

I love the folks who keep coming back - the show itself, as you’ve gathered, plays a lot off the crowd watching it. While I have a number of people who come back, there’s always a large number of people for whom this is the first time they’ve seen the big loud fat guy with the weird mustache on stage. The fact that it’s a magic show just makes it more confusing, because…

The primary response to magic is trance. Quiet. Silence.
- Jeff McBride (quoting someone, I’ll look it up)

and my show is all about people laughing and cheering and making silly “OOO AH OH HUH” noises and the like. So people don’t know, from the get go, that they’re not only allowed to make noise but in fact encouraged to do so.

This is where my Repeat Offenders come in. My Shills.

SHILL
NOUN: One who poses as a satisfied customer or an enthusiastic gambler to dupe bystanders into participating in a swindle.
- Houghton Mifflin Dictionary courtesy of Yahoo! Education

I call them “Shills” but really they’re “audience helpers” - folks who have seen the show before and, well, do what they’re allowed (and encouraged) to do - laugh, relax, have a good time. They act as guides for the other folks who come to see my shows, letting them know that this isn’t like the other “magic” shows they’ve seen - they should feel relaxed enough to enjoy themselves.

And that’s why, whenever there’s a surpisingly strong outburst of enthusiasm when I say or do something, I always say…

“Thank you, shills!”

So, remember that Magic Contest I told you about? On Tuesday evening I found out that I had gotten a call Monday night… from Stan Kramien, the man who runs the contest.

The voicemail ran as follows:

Stan Kramien calling telling you you did a good job. You’re wasting your time - you should be in comedy clubs. You should devote all your energy to booking yourself in comedy clubs.

… I’ll just be over here going “eeee” a lot and looking up Portland area comedy clubs.